1. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.

    Psalm 100:4-5

    • We will enter Your gates with thanksgiving in our hearts. We will enter Your courts with praise. We will say this is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice for You have made us glad.
    • Thank You for the opportunity to serve You today.
    • Thank You for the almond blossom we see all around and the reminder that You are watching over Your word to perform it. (Jeremiah 1:12)
    • Thank You that Your mercies are new every morning. (Lamentations 3:23)
    • Lord, You neither slumber nor sleep. (Psalm 121:4)
    • The earth may shake but You are our rock.
    • You are the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8)
    • Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 106:1
    • Thank You, Lord for Your written word and for Your Holy Spirit.
    • May our prayers today be a sweet incense rising to You. (Revelation 5:8)
    • Worthy, worthy, worthy is the Lamb! (Revelation 5:12)
  2. Security - the latest stabbing attack was in the shopping mall of Maale Adumim, a large new town to the East of Jerusalem. Earlier in the week an off-duty IDF officer was killed by "friendly fire" as other soldiers responded to an attempted attack by a Palestinian identified as a school teacher. This was at Etzion Junction, the scene of several attacks over recent months.
    • Lord, we hold before You the young men and women soldiers and police who are constantly putting their lives on the line, standing as physical intercession for the people of Israel.
    • Give a supernatural calmness to all of these security personnel especially when they need to use their weapons. Give them a steady eye and steady hands.
    • Keep alert and calm those civilians who carry weapons and give them accuracy in the use of those weapons when they have to use them.
    • Guard against any bloodlust among the Jewish people.
    • Protect the soldiers from the spirit of fear.
    • Protect the innocent.
    • Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Matthew 5:4
    • Lord, bring Your comfort to the bereaved families and friends and give Your peace to those who fired the shots which killed the officer by friendly fire.
    • Guard the hearts of the medical service people who see so much of the effects of this horrific terror campaign.
    • Call Your people to pray and raise up walls of protection as groups of people gather to pray especially in those places where repeated attacks have taken place, eg. Etzion Junction, Hebron, Damascus Gate in Jerusalem. Send Your angels to guard these places.
    • Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the realm of the dead will not stand. (Isaiah 28:18) We ask You, Lord to drive back this covenant with death which has been showing its ugly face around this land!
  3. Government response - it is hard to see what the government could do about this wave of terror which is not already being done. But we can pray that they will have wisdom.
    • Lord, make our leaders like those, from Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do. (1 Chronicles 12:32) Give them Your wisdom!
    • Reveal Your ways to those people able and ready to implement them.
    • Lord, make use of the great inventiveness which You have bestowed on the Jewish people.
    • Thank You that the political opposition has largely stopped blaming the government for the continued violence.
    • The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes. Proverbs 21:1
    • Turn Binyamin Netanyahu to do Your will.
  4. Relations with Egypt - A new Egyptian ambassador has just arrived in Israel. This marks a continued recent improvement in relations between Israel and Egypt. President Sisi has proved a good ally especially in dealings with Hamas. Israel's Southern border has been looking much more secure and we should pray about the nature of this international relationship.
    • Give the new ambassador, Hazem Ahdy Khairat good personal relationships with Israel's leaders, particularly Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Rivlin.
    • Thank You for President Sisi's reliability as an ally.
    • Thank You for recent cooperation regarding Hamas and the use of tunnels out of Gaza.
    • Please change attitudes within Egypt towards their relationship with Israel.
    • Reveal any hidden motives to bring harm to Israel.
    • Prevent Russia or other Arab nations from spoiling Egypt's relationship with Israel.
    • Give Israel's leaders wisdom regarding how far to trust Egypt.
    • You have said, Blessed is Egypt My people (Isaiah 19:25) Is this a beginning of that, Lord? If so, we want to add our "Amen" to all You are doing.
  5. Aliyah - We have prayed in recent months for the removal of the bureaucratic difficulties preventing foreign professional qualifications being accepted in Israel. There has been talk but little action.
    • Lord, we ask You to open wide the doors for Your people to come home.
    • Embolden the government and/or the courts to break the power of the professional associations which control the admission of overseas doctors and others to jobs in Israel.
    • Break all discrimination and bureaucracy and all unjust shackles which prevent new immigrants from getting jobs in Israel.
    • Help the new immigrants learn Hebrew.
    • Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the ends of the earth,… I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble. Jeremiah 31:8-9
    • Make the way straight so they can come in and not stumble.
    • Change attitudes within the Ministry of Interior or change personnel so they will be for Aliyah and not against it.
    • Let those Jews visiting Israel for the holidays of Purim and Pesach be convicted to stay rather than going back home to exile.
    • When they say "Next year in Jerusalem" at the end of the Pesach evening give the conviction to really mean it this time and to act upon this conviction.
    • Put it into the hearts of Your people to trust You. Give them more faith.
  6. Natural Gas - The Supreme Court is set to rule on a deal to move forward with the extraction of gas from a large source off the coast of Israel. The development has been held up by a lot of opposition.
    • Lord release Your righteous judgement in this matter.
    • Set us free from humanistic judgments.
    • The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. Psalm 19:9
    • May Israel not scorn Your abundant blessing upon Your land.
    • Give Netanyahu strength to see this deal through if You truly want Israel to use this rich supply of gas.
  7. Netanyahu to Washington - The Prime Minister is due in the near future to visit the USA again for what will possibly be his last official meeting with President Obama. Given their much publicized bad relationship we need to pray:
    • Lord, give Netanyahu wisdom and boldness, knowing when to speak and when to be silent. Give him good advisors and the discernment to recognize the good advice. Keep him out of the America election process.
    • Give Netanyahu the grace to speak Your word as he has often done in the past.
    • Hedge in Obama and hold him back from any vindictiveness towards Netanyahu or towards Israel.
    • Let the fear of the Lord be upon both of these leaders.
    • The hearts of these men are in Your hands (Proverbs 21:1). Turn them wherever You choose.
    • The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. Isaiah11:2
    • Anoint Netanyahu with this Spirit.
    • For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:6
  8. Rain - Although we have been blessed with some rain in the past week, Israel remains in need of much rain to alleviate a serious drought (although the development of desalination plants mean that we are not in a crisis).
    • Thank You, Lord for the recent rains.
    • Lord, have compassion on the Sea of Galilee so that it would not die. Send rain and snow in abundance in the North of Israel.
    • You are bringing Your people home. They need water!
    • Ask the Lord for rain in the time of the latter rain. The Lord will make flashing clouds; He will give them showers of rain, Grass in the field for everyone. Zechariah 10:1
    • He will cause the rain to come down for you -the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. Joel 2:23
    • Waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. Isaiah 35:6
  9. Rain of the Holy Spirit
    • Pour out Your Spirit on Your people and make us lovers of truth.
    • Lead Your people into paths of truth, righteousness and justice.
    • Give a love of Your word, the whole truth and not just a part.
    • Give us a new and living revelation of the risen Yeshua.
    • Lord, keep us sensitive to Your Spirit prompting us to continue in prayer for all that is on Your heart.
  10. Please continue in prayer for Chuck Cohen, ministering in Germany with IFI-Deutschland.
Shabbat Shalom from the IFI team in Jerusalem!